Originally Posted by vivsqt
I am writing as an experienced longarmer for ten years now. Never in my life time did I think I would be a professional LA quilter. I live in the small town of Grand Junction, CO. I make close to $20,000. a year. Now that is not a lot of money compared to what DH made before retiring, but working in retail for most of my life, I only made between $8,000 - $10.00 a year. So even though it does take up a lot of hours devoted to my LA I get to stay home and work. You are all right. You have to have a passion for LA quilting because your life is surrounded by it. Everybody in Junction knows me as the LA quilter, pattern designer and teacher. Anybody is welcome into my home that has a quilting problem, wants to share what they have made or just wants to visit. I always make time for them.
for the most part I enjoy every quilt that comes through my door, but there are a handful that I would have gladly given to someone else to quilt. But the challenge is to see if you can make something beautiful out of a badly peiced quilt top. I have about eight years of pictures of the quilts I have quilted over the years. The past two years I have not even had the time to print out all the quilts and put them in an album. So yes, I am a busy person. I started quilted on my Viking sewing machine in 1998. I soon jumped up to the Janome with a 9" base. (those extra 3" made a world of difference when it came to queen and king size quilts. When I really started bringing in the work, I decided to by a Handi Quilter. My first LA. (scary). I jumped from quilting four quilts a month to quilting 8 quilts a month and no more getting on the floor and pinning those large quilts. After two or three years with the HQ I bought my first Gammill. What a difference a quality machine can make. I jumped from 8 quilts a month to about 12 to 15 quilts a month. (all sizes) Two years ago I bought a Statler Stitcher. It's obvious that I was doing pretty well in this small town as far a clientel was going, but I was very tired and have some health issues as well. My 1st Gammill was giving me a lot of problems, so it was time to either quit or buy a new machine. So I opted to by a new machine. I was trying to decided whether to stay with the Gammill or to purchase another brand, when I realized that I could upgrade to a Statler Stitcher, which gave me a $10,000 trade-in towards my Statler. Now for those who wonder if Digitized quilting is cheating, I can say this. When I bought the Statler, I thought I was going to get a break, because the machine does all the work, right? ( wrong!!!) No machine can run unless there is a person telling it what to do. Even a sewing machine needs someone to sit there and push the fabric under the needle. Is a sewing machine cheating, when God gave us hands to sew with. If you don't have the wisdom of how to make that machine work, nothing is getting made, nothing is getting done. Last year I was so tired of working with the Statler that I had spread the word I was retiring. Within a month I had received so many phone calls begging me not to quit, that I decided to hang in there for a few more years. People put so much time, love, energy and money into their quilts, that they want someone who can make them look beautiful with the quilting. Now I am not a Linda Taylor or a Pam Clark, but I currently have 30 work orders hanging in my sewing room waiting to be quilted. I don't know how many people will read this note being on the end of the stream, but know this, you can make a business out of LA quilting if there is a need and passion to do something you love. People will notice and the work will come. God bless and enjoy whatever and where ever you are in the quilting world.